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Terminator 5 Will Launch a New Trilogy, Will it Work?

Herner Klenthur June 29, 2013

Its been an interesting few weeks for Terminator 5 news. Most noteably in the last week we have learned that the film was rumored to be set in the 50’s with Arnold playing a human character and that Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock would step back from the future and wreak havoc as the new Terminator.

I like The Rock but if you want to firmly flush Terminator 5 down the toilet a great start is casting him as a Terminator. For a new Terminator movie to work it really needs to go back to its roots. The original Terminator movie was terrifying. Terminator 2 was a splashy big budget affair and since then the franchise has quickly degenerated into an off kilter affair.

I think Terminator 5 needs to remember the most important thing about a Terminator; They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever!

Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed no less than a half-dozen times that Terminator 5 is coming and that fans and the studio want him back as the lean mean killing machine. It has consistently been delayed by script issues and although at one time it had Fast & Furious directed Justin Lin in the wings to direct Terminator 5 has been in pieces for some time. That all ended this week.

Skydance Productions, Annapurna Pictures and Paramount Pictures have jointly announced they will partner on a rebooted “TERMINATOR” movie, to be released by Paramount Pictures on June 26, 2015. Key things to note here is they do not say Terminator 5 they say a rebooted movie franchise.

This is not the first time however that a studio has stepped up to reboot Terminator. When Terminator Salvation was announced the expectation was that it would launch a new trilogy of Terminator movies with Christian Bale as John Conner.

The fact it is being rebooted again specifically raises all new questions on how Arnold can fit into the timeline. As much as he is the face of the $1billion Terminator movie franchise he simply at his age can not pull off the role anymore.

I honestly think that The Guardian says it best when they point out that he is not Batman or Superman he is the T-800 just as Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. Arnold is significant but he is not the Terminator franchise anymore then Michael Keaton is the only ‘true’ Batman.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a significant part of the film franchise but in order for Terminator 5 to succeed it must move past him. I love the idea of a cameo but I want Arnold not the CGI debacle of 2009’s Terminator Salvation. If they want to include Arnold in the new Terminator movie they should play on his age and add a twist similar to the twist in Terminator 2 where he returned as a hero.

Arnold has promised the script for the new Terminator movie will have a twist that will leave fans shocked. I think the long discussed twist of him playing a human character is genius! It plays well into his age and makes it possible for Arnold to have closure in the franchise.

The question is what will the reboot / remake focus on? If its anything like the Evil Dead prequel it will pay homage while being its own distinct thing. I for one would like to see them move right past the origins story and start from John Conner leaving the bunker after the bombs dropped in Terminator 3 and show us how he builds the resistance and let us watch as the machines destroy humanity. Think the Matrix meets Saving Private Ryan!

I also think that we need to bring back Linda Hamilton as Sarah Conner. Yes I know she is older and I do not care work it into the story she is an incredibly talented actress and a much overlooked element of the stories. Linda Hamilton is just as important to Terminator as Arnold Schwarzenegger. We cant fairly talk about closure for Arnold in a Terminator 5 cameo without talking about Linda Hamilton.

The Terminator reboot has a lot of potential because it has a strong and passionate producer in Megan Ellison a proven studio in Paramount and much more important they also have an incredible writer in Laeta Kalogridis who wrote the screenplay for Shutter Island which is one of the truly great supernatural thrillers of the last decade. Now all they need is an awesome director and I for one think they should be looking at Gareth Edwards the mastermind behind the ultra low-budget sci-fi film MONSTER.

Terminator will hit theaters in 2015 and lets all hope for the sake of the new franchise they bring some originality but also get it back to its core and make it the terrifying experience the first one was! What do you want from a new Terminator movie franchise?

If it’s set int he 50s and Arnold is human then we’re going to learn how he is connected to Skynet and why he was the template for the T-800. And the Rock, being the new Terminator will be the template for the newest T-8675309 or whatever. Beyond that, I’d steer clear of the Conner family with the story. After 4 attempts to kill or prevent John Conner it’s time for the machines to move on.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles provided Summer Glau with a really challenging role in that she has to play an AI being who is very, very close to reaching the Singularity – when an AI becomes more intelligent than its human creators. In one episode in particular, Season 2, episode 4, entitled Allison From Palmdale, she falls into a disassociative fugue state in which she, the cyborg, cannot distinguish between her AI self and the human she is modelled on. Apart from being a tour de force of acting on Ms.Glau’s part, she provides a really interesting portrayal of the types of identity issues might arise with an AI that is so close to being “human”. And that is just one of many episodes. She is thrilling and compelling to watch throughout.